The quality of broadband services available in the UK is now "critical" to the economy, according to an expert.
Communications regulator Ofcom has claimed that the UK's broadband infrastructure is "critical to the 21st century economy".Speaking at the Westminster eForum keynote seminar: Broadband for All?, the body's partner for strategy and market developments, Peter Phillips, said such quality web services are "no longer the preserve of geeks and cyber visionaries".
He explained that because of this, the industry needs to think beyond the issue of rolling out universal broadband of 2Mbps across the UK by 2012 and look to the future.
"It is important that we collectively keep an eye on the medium-term goal, to make sure we create the right circumstances for the next generation of superfast broadband capable of delivering much higher speeds," he added.
Virgin Media recently confirmed it has rolled Britain's first next-generation network, which offers speeds of up to 50Mbps.